Former neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson discussed the Iran nuclear deal, immigration and amnesty, the “black lives matter” movement and Trump’s candidacy in an interview on “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Calling the Iran deal “perhaps the worst deal in the history of America,” Carson said he would get rid of it on day one as president because the deal does not have any verification, accountability or enforcement, the markers of a good deal.
“We don’t have any of those things in any reasonable way here,” said Carson, criticizing the U.S. for allowing Iran to obtain ballistic missiles and not dismantling their nuclear infrastructure. “We’ve not stopped anything, except we are now starting a nuclear arms race in the region. It is perhaps the worst deal in the history of America.”
“It kicks the can down the road and makes it a problem for somebody else,” he said.
Carson said that Trump’s entry into the race has been “a tremendous help” to his own candidacy, because “fewer people are talking about my lack of political experience now. And that’s good.”
“Experience can come from a variety of different places,” said the former neurosurgeon. “It’s an erroneous thought that only political experience is expedient.”
Carson said he hopes to show people the full range of who he really is and what the thinks during the Fox News debate Thursday. “I have a tendency to be asked about medical things, and very seldom do I get asked about … other types of political things that are important,” he said.
“Do you worry though that right now, the way our media climate works [with] social media … only the loudest voices, only the most controversial rhetoric is what gets attention, and then people get bumps in the polls?” asked host Chuck Todd.
“I believe that something different will happen in 2016,” said Carson, because “the majority of people” in America realize that “we’re going off track in the wrong direction.”
“Unless we become serious and really start paying attention, this is going to continue, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans,” he added.
Todd asked Carson why he had called the “black lives matter” movement “silly.”
“I don’t recall calling it ‘silly,'” said Carson. “What I call ‘silly’ is political correctness gone amok. When … Martin O’Malley said ‘black lives matter, white lives matter,’ he got in trouble for that and had to apologize? That’s what … is silly. Of course all lives matter, and of course we should be very concerned about what’s going on, particularly in our inner cities. It’s a crime for a young black man [that] the most likely cause of death is homicide. That is a huge problem that we need to address in a very serious way.”
Carson said that “the vast majority of police are very good people. He conceded that there are some “bad apples” in the police force but pleaded that people “need to be a little more mature” in how they think about the issue.
“Certainly in cases where police are doing things that are inappropriate, we ought to investigate those promptly and justice should be swift,” he said.
Asked whether cases like Cincinnati, Ohio, Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., were “part of a larger trend” of policing black people or if they were outliers, Carson said he thought such cases had been “going on all along” and that body cameras would be “extraordinarily helpful” in solving the issues. He also recommended improvements in screening of police recruits and that law enforcement should be introduced into communities at a very early stage.
That way “little Johnny’s first encounter with a police officer is as somebody that’s playing catch with him … not somebody who’s chasing him down the street with a gun,” said Carson.
Carson is for giving the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. a guest worker permit and having them pay fines, pointed out Chuck Todd.
“A lot of conservatives would call that amnesty. Why is that not amnesty in your view?” asked Todd.
Carson said people that say “round ’em all up, and send em back” have “no idea what they’re talking about,” how much it would cost, and “how impractical that is.”
“Many of these people don’t know any other place; this is the only place they’ve been,” said Carson. “So where are you going to send them back to in that situation?”
He said he’d let them register to become guest workers and pay a back-tax penalty. “It does not give them voting rights; it does not make them a citizen.”
If undocumented workers want citizenship, they can go to the back of the line, suggested Carson.
“People will call that amnesty,” said Chuck Todd.
“They can call it whatever they want to,” replied Carson.
Carson added that we need to be “pragmatic” on the issue and that the borders need to be sealed, suggesting that electronic drones could help border patrol.
